Friday, June 24, 2011

Weekly Review

Sabbatical:

Kazuko Hioki will be taking six months sabbatical leave beginning July 1, 2011. UK Libraries’ Conservation Librarian, Kazuko is internationally recognized for her work in book conservation with a particular interest in Japanese texts. During her leave she will prepare a book-length manuscript regarding printed books in the Edo period.


Medical Center Library Journal Binding Project:

Congratulations to Sharon Clark, Kathy Franklin, Bridgett Kidwell, and Maggie Nunley for completing the MCL Journal Binding Project! The entire project took twenty-one months to complete and bind over 7,000 journal volumes in the Medical Center Library. With the completion of the project, the Medical Center Library’s Reading Room now includes only the 2010 and 2011 current journal issues.

It is through the dedication, patience, and hard work of these individuals that the project was completed this month. Faculty and staff at the Medical Center Library are most appreciative of this accomplishment, which benefits faculty, staff, and students by providing easier access to articles in the bound journal collection.


International Visitor:


Dr. Edith Hesse, Head of Corporate Communications for the International Center for Tropical Agriculture located in Cali, Colombia will be visiting UK Libraries on July 8th. She will be spending the day working on several professional projects with Toni Greider before going on to London.


IMLS Awards Grant for ARL/MLA Diversity and Inclusion Initiative:

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has awarded a Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program grant to the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) to fund a new partnership with the Music Library Association (MLA). The ARL/MLA Diversity and Inclusion Initiative (ARL/MLA DII) will seek to address the need for professional staff in music and performing arts libraries to better reflect evolving demographics of students and faculty in music and performing arts higher education.


UK Alumni Association Service Award Banquet:

I gave the keynote presentation at this year’s UK Alumni Association Service Award Banquet held last Friday at the Embassy Suites. In honor of women presidents of the Alumni Association, I spoke about the first generation of women students, faculty, and staff at the University of Kentucky between 1880 and the First World War. I also thanked the UK Alumni Association for their strong support of UK Libraries over the years. The Association played a key role in making possible the financing and construction of the William T. Young Library.


Summer Picnic:

Nearly 90 UK Libraries staff and faculty attended the summer “picnic” held again this year at Ovid’s.
Thanks to Peggy Phillips, Jennifer Richmond, Jason Keinsley, Rita Tobin, and Toni Greider for planning the event.


Thanks to Lynn Bowman and Toni Greider for their contributions to the Weekly Review.


Terry Birdwhistell
Dean of Libraries

Friday, June 17, 2011

Weekly Review

UKnowledge Featured on WUKY with President Lee Todd:

Mary Beth Thomson and Pat Wilson were guests on President Todd’s UK Perspective segment on WUKY. The segment was broadcast today, June 17, at 8:45 a.m. and 5:45 p.m. In case you missed the broadcast you can listen to the segment @: http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wuky/news.newsmain/article/986/0/1815284/UK.Perspectives/UK.Knowledge.Repository


Kentucky Architectural Photographs Exhibit:

Jim Birchfield curated an exhibit, “Robert W. Tebbs and his 1927 Kentucky Architectural Photographs,” at the Lexington Public Library. The exhibit is on display through June 19 with a reception Friday June 17, 5:00 – 8:00 p.m. at the Central Library. More information is available @:

http://www.lexpublib.org/calendar_program/gallery-hop-kentucky-architectural-photographs-by-robert-tebbs


Retirements:

Teresa Burgett announced her retirement from UK Libraries, effective July 15, 2011. Teresa joined the Cataloging Department on a temporary basis in 1984 and moved into a regular faculty position in 1985 as a Serials Monograph Cataloger. During her career with UK Libraries she has served at various times as Acting Assistant Director for Technical Services, head of the Online Cataloging/Conversion Unit, and head of the Online Cataloging Department. Currently she is an Original Cataloger in Cataloging and Metadata, Access Records Management, Collections and Technical Services Division. We thank you for your good work and wish you a wonderful retirement.

Kathy Franklin, Library Technician Senior, will retire effective October 3. Kathy has worked for UK Libraries twice: first as a Central Serials Record Router from 1976 to 1978, and then returning as a technician in the Education Library in 1996. She transferred to the Bindery Unit of the Preservation Department in 2000 as a Library Technician Senior. Kathy has been very involved in library committees and represented UK Libraries on the University Staff Senate. Her contributions are much appreciated. Congratulations and best wishes, Kathy!


Doug Boyd Discusses Oral History Access Controversy on NPR:

Oral history interviews at Boston College detailing the violence between Northern Ireland and Britain are the subject of a legal battle over access to the restricted interviews. During a report this week on NPR’s All Things Considered, Nunn Center Director Doug Boyd commented on the chilling effect this case is having on oral historians world-wide and the impact it has on future research. The entire story and audio are available @: http://www.npr.org/2011/06/15/137196876/a-fight-to-keep-northern-ireland-interviews-secret


UK Libraries Budget Officer Appointed to Payroll Workgroup:

Vice-President Frank Butler appointed Stephen Sizemore to the Payroll Workgroup of the University’s Administrative Process Improvement Initiative. Vice-President Butler noted that Stephen would bring the expertise, clear thinking and resolve needed to ensure that the API Initiative succeeds.


Faculty Council Transitions:

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Beth Kraemer for her leadership this past year as Chair of the UK Libraries Faculty Council and Peter Hesseldenz for his service as Member-at-Large.

Laura Whayne will become Chair July 1. Congratulations to Brad Carrington on his election as Faculty Council Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect and to Robert Shapiro on his election as Faculty Council Member-at-Large.


Food for Thought: Promoting Cookbook and Recipe Collections

At the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference in Virginia last month, Deirdre Scaggs presented at a session examining increasing interest in local food and the need for archivists to promote and encourage the use of cookbook, recipe, and food history collections. She and speakers from Virginia Tech, the University of Denver, and the University of Delaware presented their institutions’ cookery collections and gave session attendees a taste of the projects these collections have inspired, including the acquisition of these collections and the initiatives sparked by the acquisitions. They also discussed writing a historical cookbook and the impact of its publication as well as preparing recipes as a material culture teaching tool.

Conference survey results showed that Deirdre’s session was the highest rated session during the three day conference with 72% of attendees giving it the best rating of “excellent”!


UK Libraries picnic, Wednesday, June 22, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.


Thanks to Judy Sackett for her contributions to the Weekly Review.

UK Libraries Weekly Review is also available as a blog: http://uklibrariesbirdseye.blogspot.com/


Terry Birdwhistell
Dean of Libraries

Friday, June 10, 2011

UK Librarians Speak at National Assessment Conference:

Debbie Sharp and Judy Wiza presented a session at the inaugural conference of the Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education held June 5-7. It was an opportunity to talk about library assessment in a national higher education forum.

Debbie and Judy reported on their experiences with measuring student learning. Information literacy, sometimes referred to as critical thinking skills, 21st century skills, or lifelong learning, is a critical component in the development of communication skills and quantitative reasoning abilities and it is for this reason that information literacy has been included in the design of the newly revised General Education Curriculum known as UK Core. UK Librarians will be working with UK Core faculty to teach students the skills they will need to be successful in the classroom and beyond.


Art in the Hub:

KyForward has posted a story on Art in the Hub, including the Flickr show. http://www.kyforward.com/our-schools/2011/06/01/uk-show-features-high-school-art/


Essential Leader Program:

Kathryn Lybarger, Coordinator for Cataloging and Metadata, has completed UK's Essential Leader Program. ELP is for employees who want to become better leaders and learn key leadership skills. Participants are required to take 80 hours of classroom work over a two year period. The program is designed around seven leadership competencies, including communication, teamwork, creative problem solving and flexibility, interpersonal skills, professionalism, resolving conflicts and leadership.


Library Security Guidelines Revised:

New guidelines for library security have just been completed by the Library Leadership and Management Association. Pat Wilson chaired the Safety and Security of Library Buildings Committee which spent the past two years making significant revision to a Library Security Guidelines. They are available at http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/llama/publications/index.cfm.


Mary Molinaro to Serve as Program Chair:

Mary Molinaro will serve as Program Chair for the Southeast Regional Educause Conference to be held June 2012. Educause is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology.


Doug Boyd to Deliver Keynote Address:

Doug Boyd, Director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, will be the keynote speaker at this year’s annual meeting of the Oral History Association in Denver. He will address how new technologies can advance the practice of oral history and report on the best practices for collecting, curating and disseminating oral histories in the digital age.



UK Libraries Adds Chinese Journal Database to Growing Asian Studies Collections:

UK Libraries now subscribes to China Online Journals, a full-text digital collection of nearly 7,000 journals published in China. Subject areas covered include business and economics, arts and humanities, law and politics, social sciences, health and medicine, science and technology, and agriculture. This resource features interfaces in English and Chinese, as well as a list of titles arranged by subject. Simple and advanced search options are provided.

Along with the recently acquired Kikuzo II Visual, a full-text database of Japanese-language newspapers, periodicals, and other content, China Online Journals represents a significant addition to UK Libraries’ growing Asian Studies collections.


Kate Black and Reinette Jones Assist Colorado Journalist:

Mike Lawrence, a reporter with the Steamboat Springs, Colorado newspaper, wrote to express his “gratitude for, and profound appreciation of, the work of Kate Black and Reinette Jones.”

“Both women went well out of their way to voluntarily help me and our newspaper today, providing invaluable work and research that - all signs indicate - prevented local veterans here in Steamboat from placing a Confederate flag on the grave of a soldier who very likely fought for the Union.

I called Ms. Black after learning of the University of Kentucky's Civil War Sesquicentennial Exhibit through an Internet search. I was trying to verify the history of the veteran in question - who locals thought was a Confederate soldier - but was struggling to sift through the volumes of Internet sites and data.”

“I called Ms. Black after simply scrolling briefly through the library's staff listing, looking for a researcher. I thought maybe she could suggest places for me to search or point me in a right direction with a couple of tips. Instead, she listened to my situation, asked several questions to gather more information, then took it upon herself to work with Reinette Jones and - over two hours, she said - find century-old data and records that verify, as much as such uncertain history can, the likely true story of the veteran buried in our cemetery here. Ms. Black responded to me with all that information on the same day as I called her, within a few hours. I neither asked for nor expected such an overwhelmingly helpful response to a request made with no notice, from far out of state.”

You can read the resulting news story at: http://www.steamboattoday.com/news/2011/may/26/soldier-likely-fought-union-not-confederacy/


Thanks to Stacey Greenwell, Heath Martin, Deirdre Scaggs, and Mary Beth Thomson for their contributions to the Weekly Review.


Terry Birdwhistell
Dean of Libraries